Were there people who made a living or at least a serious hobby out of impersonating Elvis prior to his death, or is this just a phenomenon born of his demise ?
http://www.detroitnews.com/menu/stories/51233.htm
Apparently, Sherman Arnold is considered to be the first Elvis impersonator by those that really care about such things. A brief scan of the above article seems to indicate that he didn’t really start until about 1978.
Negative. Presley impersonators started popping up after Presley was drafted. By the late sixties there were dozens.
Voted as: The poster you’d most like to meet.
I demand a recount.
You can still hire Elvis impersonators. It’s weird. No other entertainer in modern history has had such a universal effect on cultures all over the world. Not Sinatra, not michael Jackson, nobody. Who really knows why.
My own opinion is that he was talented, but I never bought any of his records.
Peace,
mangeorge
I only know two things;
I know what I need to know
And
I know what I want to know
Mangeorge, 2000
I read something funny somewhere. It went something like this:
In the year that he died, there were 12 Elivis impersonators in the world.
In 1997, there were nine thousand, six hundred and four.
At this rate…
In the year 2037, everyone will be an Elvis impersonator.
“If I pinch my nose with my fingers, close my mouth tight,
and blow real hard, I can make my ears bleed. It’s
not as cool as Superman’s X-ray vision, but it’s my own
special talent.”
At the company xmas party when I was working in France they had hired an Elvis impersonator. Very, very funny to listen to an Elvis with a French accent who then couldn’t really speak English at all. Since the French have difficulty with “h’s”, ze Jail 'Ouse Rock was a real crowd-pleaser! 
My point: They ARE everywhere and I’m going to rush out and buy my fake Elvis hair and rhinestone suit before they are all gone…
Even if I had a signature, I doubt I’d have room for it.
I was a teenager back when Andy Kaufman used to do his Elvis imitation on SNL, and at THAT time, Andy was just about the only guy on Earth doing Elvis. Within a few months of Elvis’ death, however, imitators were EVERYWHERE!
Interesting, though strange, that the imitators always choose to copy the fat, bloated, mumbling white-satin-jumpsuit Elvis of the 70s- the ELvis that most people consider an embarrassment! No one seems to imitate the young, exciting, dynamic ELvis of the 1950s. Of course, it’s a lot harder to do that! ANY clown can paste on sideburns and put on a jumpsuit… very few people can capture what made the young ELvis special.
Andy Kaufmann was one of the best, I think. Maybe because the transformation was so surprising.
Impersonators in general are kinda fun to watch. Rich Little, Frank Gorshin et al. I miss 'em. But nowadays it seems like everybody can do somebody!
Hmmmm, can I do AuntiePam?
No, best left to my own devices.
Question arises, since almost all E-imps I ever catch wind of are doing the white jumpsuit guy with those sunglasses, and in light of a previous posters note of the increasing numbers of E-imps, I wonder, is there possibly an Elvis impersonator supplier?